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Monday, August 30, 2010

The 6th video entry for September VoM is by Kah Hau. It is sort of the preview or teaser for Wildcards skill tape to be released soon. Well based on this little preview, we can be assured that the actual skill tape is going to be awesome. Cannot wait to see it.

P.S: To produce a skill tape for a team is a big job that requires lots of coordination and effort.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

We have our 5th video for September by Zhaoming. Welcome back Zhaoming and you have improved alot after your training and experiences in Japan for the past 1 month. Great job achieving "RnA Set 1" in Japan and then hitting it again back in Singapore. Let's just watch the video and enjoy the moment once more.

P.S: I knew I said this before 2 years ago: toss cupie will become a basic stunt; and now it has.

And for our 4th vidio entry, we have a video entry from Ruth of ASTROS. Ruth had been active in partner stunting as ever, truely the best around in the business. As a winner of the 1st ever partner stunt competition held in Singapore last year, now this year Ruth is training to go compete for partner stunting in ACTI 2010 with her partner Kah Weng. Please give them all the encouragement; it is always not an easy feat to compete in a partner stunt competition, a category that few has the confidence to take part in. A very nice video done by Ruth. I believe this is only your first time coming up with a video yourself right? Really fantastic work and I loved the subtitles to go with each scene.

P.S: Jiayou Ruth and Weng Weng, it gets better each day I see you guys.

The 3rd video for September VoM; posted by Ian from ACES and tagged by Ruth from ASTROS. Ian is the co-founder of NTU ACES and had always been instrumental in the growth and development of ACES over the past 7 years and a important factor behind ACES being 5 times Champions. Ian also played huge roles in Singapore associations and it is safe to say that without him; cheerleading in SG will definitely be a few steps backwards today. Personally, I am also very thankful to Ian for my development as a cheerleader. The video shows an elevator done by female bases. It shows the proper form and technique that is required for multiple basing; many guys' form are not as good as their's. With proper technique and form, it does not require as much strength to hit a stunt, this is efficiency.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Singapore till date has won 3 medals in YOG, 2 bronze and 1 silver and the games are only at the half way point, meaning the tally may still increase. This is already a much better result than our efforts in the usual senior Olympic Games, which Singapore has over the last 40 plus years just amassed a total of 2 silver medals.

This sets me thinking, “Is it harder for sportsmen in Singapore to perform at the senior level than it is to perform at the youth level?”

Of the 3 medals for YOG, 1 of them was achieved by our youth swimmer, Rainer Ng, in the 50metres backstroke.

Taken from an interview with Rainer’s mum: “It (the one-year off) was definitely worth it. Swimming is Rainer’s passion, he wants to swim. As parents, we will support him because swimming has a very short lifespan. We have to make full use of every chance he has,” she said.

Rainer took 1 year off his studies just to train for his passion. Taking a 1 year off is too much of a luxury for working adults like myself. How I wish I can afford to just take a year off for my passion, but the responsibilities of a working adult and the opportunity cost (may be as much as $50,000 - $100,000 or more a year) are far greater than that when you were just a teenager.

I feel this may be 1 of the biggest reason why Singapore sportsmen at the senior level cannot perform as well as their youth counterparts. In the ultra fast paced society of Singapore, to balance time between a full time job and training is a tough thing to do; plus the fact that as an adult, you simply cannot afford to stop working and take a full year off (Most once graduated, are immediately burdened with their study loans etc). And once you start your working life, most of us are no longer so lucky to have our parents say they will support us for a year and go do whatever we loved, like Rainer’s did.

Well my only answer to this is to sacrifice a big portion of my sleep and socialization with my colleagues. Now I really envy the youths, and reminisce the times that I had just a few years back.

P.S: For those still in your youths, really make full use of your time to indulge and live for your passion now. For those on the verge to graduate into the working society, really grasp hold of your last chances of “freedom”, appreciate what you have now and treasure every moment you have doing what you love now, before you get sucked into the rat race. Complain less and do more.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Recently, in the span of a month, I was involved in 2 performances. It was such a good feeling to be part of a routine again. I am also very happy about the formation of ASTROS, finally something which we had been talking about for the past few years had came true; the formation of a team with like minded passionate cheerleaders whose goals are to push the limits of cheerleading, and a team that can focus entirely on that without the pressures of nationals or competitions.

With ASTROS, I got the chance to perform again, after more than 3 years. My last performance was at Singapore Recreation Club on 29th June 2007; it was quite a emotional one for me, and I wrote a blog post for it - First at the last

Like I mentioned in the post, this was the last of over more than 50 performances I did throughout my cheer life till then, and for my "swansong", I was going to attempt to do a cupie in the routine. But well sadly I failed the cupie, and I was really devastasted then (you can ask snow about that and maybe that's why on our way home I did a Standing Back Tuck on the concrete ground of the MRT Platform. haha). I shall post my "last performance"; watch how I failed my cupie - I am the centre PS group during the opening.

So it was really nice to be able to do a cupie in my first "comeback" performance and chase all the "demons" away from my head now. And then to further erase any self doubts that I had, I got the chance to do a toss cupie in our 2nd performance.

"But what about if you failed at your last attempt? Does it signal that the time is not ripe yet, that you still have unfinished business for it to be the last? Well I guess I will not find out until the moment comes. Will I go for it one more "last" time?"

And the moment came it did. And I found out the answer to that question 3 years ago. Indeed my time is not up yet, I was not ripe and ready 3 years back (to do the cupie), but now I am back for the harvest. I believe now that there will never be a "last time" for me. I quote from First at the last again:

"This story just tells me there is no such thing as the last time, there is always unpredictable number of times, and the road is never ending, unless you decide to end it yourself. It is about how much you wanted it.

Hopes and dreams are always out there to be achieved, you never know when you are not going to make it, unless you give up on your on hopes and dreams. The last time may very well also be your first time. Never quit on your passion, for one day your dreams will be realised in one form or another. You just have to believe!"

P.S: Even now with the full up cupie done, I will not quit. Hopefully in future when I look back and read this post, double up is done.

The 2nd video for September VoM is a video posted by Chaang and tagged by Huishan of Wildcards. The video featured Chaang's and Biyi's process of hitting their Full up. It was really persistancy that wins the day. Always remember that repetition is the king; keep doing it and the hit rate will increase with each attempt. Really great job by Biyi especially, for picking yourself up and try again after each fall; you have improved so much since the early days I met you more than 3 years back now. Good job to Chaang too, this "old man" still has it, haha. (Relatively old cause he hangs out with a team of youths. Lol.)

P.S: I knew this day would come, I really have great hopes for SG cheer.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

The 1st video for VoM September. This is a video uploaded and tagged by Gary from Wildcards. Everyone who had been in cheer for a while would definitely know about Gary. This man is tall, big and strong. His attitude towards cheer is always of excellence, always playing the game to win. Cupie Liberty Low Tick Tock is something very new and I never seen done in SG before. It requires great strength and technique from the base and also great locking from the flyer. Very well done. I have seen Gary grown (in terms of skills, not size) over the past 2 years, from not being allowed to try cupie by Chaang; to doing Rewinds, Fullups, Single arm stunts etc. Gary is definitely right up there in SG Partner Stunting. A few words for Perle as well, the flyer doing the stunt with Gary in the video: Make full use of your natural talent, work hard and always be confident and smiling, you will be a great flyer. Let's enjoy the video.

It is X-Wonder's 4 years anniversary. It is always a good time to take stock of the past year, the goals that had been set and what has been achieved.

Let's take a look at our entry on our 3rd year anniversary: Lucky number 3

Alright the targets set last year includes, Full up to Cupie, Tick Tock Stretches, Full Around to Cupie, Low Pop Overs. Of these 4, I got 3 of them, Full up to Cupie and Low Pop Over and Full Around Cupie. We did not try the tick tock stretches though, but not bad I feel, 3 out of 4 of our targets were achieved.

We also set a target to link the 4 basic elements together, Full up Liberty, Full Around Liberty, Tick Tock, Pop Over. We also managed to achieve this target, I would say I give myself 7 out of 10 points for it.

Gymnastics wise, I managed to get my dream pass since the early days of my cheer life; that is Front Handspring Round Off Back Tuck. And Snow also managed to improve on her gymnastics, such as Handstans, Round off, Standing Back Tuck, 720 twists etc.

So overall X-Wonder had a good year and achieved most of our targets. Now for next year - Stunt wise our goal will be to get our Rewinds and Front Handsprings and also Cupie Full Around Cupie. And then now, we aim to link up the targets set for last year into a mini sequence; Full up Cupie to Hands Full Around Cupie to Low Pop Over.

Other than stunts wise, X-Wonder has also started a few things in the past year. X-Wonder started the Video of the Month contest (VoM) and in 5 months to date has so far received a total of 27 video entries and given out a total of $330. X-Wonder is also proud to be the official partner of Blog Post of the Month contest (BPoM), sponsored by Chaang, which to date has a total of 8 Blog Post entries and given out a total of $230. We have also started coaching a team and imparting our experience to the future generations. And of course last but not least, X-Wonder also Co-Founded our affiliate Team ASTROS with 8 other passionate cheerleaders. ASTROS formation allowed many to continue to cheer after "retirement" and also as a team continue to push the limits of cheerleading to a higher level.

Competition and awards that X-Wonder got the chance to be part of was to represent Singapore to compete in the Group Stunt Category on Cheerleading World Championship (CWC) 2009 in Germany, Bremen; and we came in 2nd runner up. X-Wonder also got new certification in judging; the ICU Level 1 and 2 Judging Certification.

X-Wonder hopes to continue the year ahead to promote and drive cheerleading to even more cheerleaders and people from all the different corners of Singapore.

We shall end off with a little video taken at Marina Barrage; such are the little joys of cheerleading, to have a skill that you can take to places and keep them as part of your memories forever.

P.S: Cheerleading had indeed given us a great deal of opportunities, more than we can ever imagined at the beginning. We want everyone to have that as well.

For BPoM August, the 2nd month we are announcing the winner, we have a total of 3 entries. And for this month, as X-Wonder is having a special promotion for it's 4th anniversary; Chaang said he will still give dollar for dollar to VoM for BPoM, which means the winner for August BPoM will also receive $80. Now let us recap the entries:

And we have Chaang to give his comments himself for this month for the winning entry:

"Failed partner stunts, correct technique… as much as these things matter now, these aren’t the things we take away in the end. These aren’t the things we remember at the end of the day.I remember the encouragement my friends gave me. I remember the times they showed me they loved me. I remember how we fought together and how we helped each other.

This entry is very genuine, very sincere, and truly comes from the heart. Many cheerleaders I know have lost sight of why they started cheerleading in the first place. When the going gets tough, they blame everyone, expect everything and do things that deviate from their original goal (refer to KR's slogan). They lost their own cheerleading in the process.

Kat is both an inspiration to both her team, and herself. But besides painting a rosy picture of love and care, she continues to keep things real as well.

This year, we have really high goals. It looks impossible, it’s so daunting, and all of us are scared. All of us are demoralized. We don’t seem to be progressing. The morale is low and all of us don’t believe in the amazing things we have planned. Tough times. There are tenthousand things we have to go up against.

As we continue our cheerleading journey, it is inevitable that we will fall. Some ppl pick themselves up after they fall. Some ppl choose to remain as a sad story after they fall. But there are some ppl who will feel the pain, yet continue to move on. Because they they remembered what they were cheering for.

Kat has effectively translated what is inspiring to her, in terms of what is inspiring to others.

Overall a blog post very well done!"

Congratulations once again to Kathleen and Jiahui. and also to all for the participation. Please continue to support, it is not that hard right?

This is the 8th month of the year and we have 8 entries for VoM August. I am very happy with the response, and also because today is X-Wonder's 4th year anniversary. So for this month special, 8 entries equals to a prize money of $80 to the winner. Let us recap the entries:

The 3rd BPoM posted by Kathleen Ong, current V.Cap of Steppers and tagged by Jiahui. If I did not remember wrongly I did stunt a little (on the floor) with you before right Kathleen? Anyway, the post was "from the heart", a very heart warmingly written post that must have brought a smile on the faces of those people involved. The post is also very encouraging and this should be the way it is in cheerleading. And I quote from the entry,

"I think all of us need a little reminding. A friendly pat on the back, a smile during training, notes on doors, encouraging texts… small things make a difference. Let’s all show each other how much we love each other. Because these things are what we take away at the end of the day. These are the things we remember."

The 8th entry for August VoM is by Jiahui from Astros. A very nice video that showed not only the training and performance side of cheerleading, but also the fun that comes after it. Cheerleading is a skill and passion that once you have it, it will follow you for the rest of your life. Astros is a newly formed team on 22nd July 2010 and is made up of "retired" cheerleaders from their previous squad and still have the passion to continue to cheer. Cheerleading means no boundaries and no end to them, hence their motto: To infinity and beyond!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

The 7th entry for VoM. This video is posted by Jiahui and tagged by Kah Weng. This is video is exactly the same video as the 1st entry for VoM August, except being the HD version. Well in accordance to the rules for VoM, this is still a valid entry, and this makes a difference especially in this month, as the amount of prize money for VoM August will depends on the number of entries.

We have the 2nd BPoM August entry, posted by Joseph.C from Genesis and tagged by their coach Ken. Though I still don't know Joseph personally, I have met cheerleaders from Genesis a couple of times on different occasions and I found them to be very nice people. Genesis is a relatively new team in SG cheerleading, and I believe that the team has a huge potential, continue to work hard, and wow SG with your routine in the next Nationals. Now with Ken and Ka Hau as coaches, Genesis can be assured to be equiped with the proper knowledge, techniques, metality, proper progession and the know hows of cheerleading.

Like Joseph said in the post, self discipline is of utmost importance in cheerleading. Alot of self improvements can be made outside of the mats, so that everyone can fully utilise the time on the mats. Proper nutrition, being punctual, pysical training are all part and parcel of being self discipline. And the post ends of with: - Together we make a difference, one voice one Genesis, we remain undivided, our hearts in harmony. -